Category Archives: Games

Back in April 2009, Eidos was acquired by Japanese game company Square Enix and they decided on rebooting the famous game Lara Croft: Tomb Raider. They decided on making a prequel and um… well… show a more human side of Lara Croft.

Fast forward to E3 2012…we got the first glimpse of the new Lara Croft “Tomb Raider” game.

1st thought – Man… she looks good

2nd thought – she grunts a lot

3rd thought – awesome graphics

4th thought – Why the heck are they torturing her so much.

5th thought – Man… only if could protect her from all this.

Um… what? Protect her?

Well. That is exactly what the developers of the game wanted you to think

After crafting the biography, our goal was to make her as believable and relatable as possible. We wanted to make a girl that felt familiar, but still has a special quality about her. Something about the way her eyes look and the expression on her face makes you want to care for her. That was our number one goal. We wanted to have empathy for Lara, and at the same time show the inner strength that made clear she was going to become a hero.

Brian Horton, senior art director of Crystal Dynamics, on the second reboot

According to the executive producer Ron Rosenberg –

When people play Lara, they don’t really project themselves into the character. They’re more like, ‘I want to protect her.’ There’s this sort of dynamic of ‘I’m going to adventure with her and trying to protect her.

….. The developers of the game are way off the mark here. When we play the game we see ourselves in the shoes of the character. We protect ourselves, we fight and we win. When the character gets killed, we say – “S**t, I lost” or “I just got killed”. We definitely don’t think – “I want to protect her.” And gender does not come into it anywhere.

People are not cool with the human side of Lara Croft. And they are definitely against making Lara Croft suffer through her friend getting kidnapped, being taken prisoner by “island scavengers” … and an attempted sexual assault. (Check the damn video above)

This had led lot of people talking about woman empowerment, gender equality, the damsel in distress, the fighting f**k toy, sexed-up victim etc.

To all these people: It is just a video game, get over it.

To the gamers: This is a prequel. Lara Croft was not born badass. She was a simple, sexy, boring archaeologist. The hardship that she faces, the things that she has to do to survive makes her the Lara Croft that we all know and love. That tiny almost sexual assault – I guess that is the first time she kills a person. That assault was the tipping point, the justification that her conscience needed.

The Next Need for Speed is going to be Most Wanted. Confused? Well, I am too. This news was just announced at Need for Speed’s official Facebook page. It is going to be developed by Criterion Games.

Criterion games are developers of hit 2010 game – Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit which is high critically acclaimed game and has won more than a dozen awards.

Need for Speed: Most Wanted is without doubt one of the most popular game of the Need for Speed series. So bringing it back kind of makes sense. We can expect Autolog integration, a more direct continuation of the Most Wanted storyline, impressive graphics and high speed police chases. The first screenshot of the game in action that they have released is certainly very impressive. I think they are going to introduce a new city called Fairhaven City.

Make sure to watch the E3 press conference live on June 4th at 1PM (PST) for more info!

[UPDATE] 05-06-2012

Checkout the gameplay video shown today at E3 press conference.

Is it just me or does the graphics look a bit low, and they seem to have borrowed a lot from Burnout Paradise. No word about the storyline of the game. As expected they would be heavy AutoLog integration.

The box art of the game is also rather plane. A black car, a white car and a cop car. Compare it to the old Most Wanted’s cover and some might mistake the new cover for the old one.

Despite the name I would need a little bit more information to be excited about the new Need for Speed Most Wanted.

With this game Need for Speed Franchise is most certainly racing on a different track. The game is described as –

An illicit, high-stakes race across the country. The only way to get your life back is to be the first from San Francisco to New York. No speed limits. No rules. No allies. All you have are your driving skills and sheer determination as you battle hundreds of the world’s most notorious drivers on the country’s most dangerous roads.

In the trailer we see a man totalling his car then jumping off roof and then attack a cop to get into the police car, he then crashes that car and is lying in a railway track with a train coming to hit him. He get out of the car just in time.

um… so what is going on? do you have to find a new car every time you wreck your car? Does it have real racing?… one in which you have to cross the finish line first to win. What is the story? How does the gameplay workout with the racing aspect? Why did the race we saw in the trailer feel painfully slow?

So far the information given about the game is very less… A guy named Jack is the protagonist of this game, he is a marked man and to save his life he has to win an illicit, coast to coast race from San Francisco to New York. Jack is being hunted by the police, as well as the men who want him dead. Need For Speed The Run is powered by DICE’s Frostbite 2 engine, thus making the game the first non-shooter game to use the engine, which provides visuals and car physics that hug the road even at top speeds.

That’s almost three games this year. This pace is possible because three studios are simultaneously working on Need For Speed games – Black Box and Criterion focusing on action racing experiences, and Slightly Mad Studios working on adrenalin-pumping simulations.

I am intrigued by the trailer of this game and it is supposed to have the best graphics too. I will wait a little more and see how this game turns out before I deicide if it is good and I want to buy it. Others who have already made the decision can pre order the game here.